barley

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English barli, also barly,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English bærlīc, which was originally an adjective meaning "of barley".^[4][5][6][7] Its first element is bær-, a form of bere (“barley”),^[4][7][8] and the second the adjective suffix -līc, the source of -ly;^[4][9][10] the OED calls the formation doubtful, but notes that the word seems first to have meant "made of barley" rather than the plant itself.^[11] Bere goes back to Proto-Germanic *baraz,^[1][12] Barnhart gives *bariz for the Old English word and keeps *baraz for the Norse one, and the OED has *baroz- and *bariz-.^[4][11] It is related to Old Norse barr (“barley”) and Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐍂𐌹𐌶𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (barizeins, “made of barley”),^{[5][3][10][8]} and cognate with Latin far (“spelt, coarse grain, meal”),^{[5][3][7][12]} the source of farina and farinaceous.^[5][6] Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary derive the group from Proto-Indo-European *bhares-.^[4][2] The word barn is a compound of bere and ærn (“house”), originally a building for storing barley.^[6][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, "of barley": 966, in Old English.^[4] Bosworth–Toller cites it in a charter boundary, "to the barley croft".^[14] As a noun, the grain, it appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 1124, which records an acre's seed of barley selling for six shillings.^[14][11]

Semantic evolution

Ayto dates the use of the adjective as a noun to the early 12th century.^[6] In Middle English it appears in the compound barli-bred, bread made of barley flour, in 1184–85, and later in the forms barlic (1250), barlich (1425) and barleche (1459).^[4] The OED's first record for the growing plant, as distinct from the grain, is in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne (1303).^[11] Weekley notes that the old adjectival use survives in barleycorn, and that John Barleycorn, a figure for malt liquor, is the title of a ballad in the Pepys collection.^[15] In slang barley, barley juice, barley pop and similar terms have meant beer,^[16] and in recent rhyming slang barley means cocaine.^[16] The English Dialect Dictionary lists many compounds in Scotland, Ireland and England, among them barley-bree and barley-broth for ale and barley-blind for drunk.^[17]

Timeline

• 966 – Old English bærlīc, of barley.^[4]
• 1124 – the grain, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.^[14][11]
• 1184–85 – Middle English barli-bred, barley bread.^[4]
• 1303 – the plant.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cereal grass of the genus Hordeum, especially Hordeum vulgare, with bristly flower spikes, grown for its grain and as fodder.^[18][7][11]
2. The grain of this plant, used to make malt for beer and whisky and in soups and other foods.^[18][7][11]

Word family

• barleycorn
• pearl barley

Related words

• barn
• farina
• farinaceous

Usage notes

In Scotland, Ireland and the north of England barley was also a cry for a truce in children's games, recorded from 1757 in Merriam-Webster;^[7] the OED's first record is in Scott's Waverley (1814).^[11] It is probably an alteration of parley or of the French parlez.^[11][10][7] In the same northern dialects to barley meant to claim something by right of first choice, as in "barley me".^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins